Penticton's popular Villa Rosa Ristorante, closed for good since June 19th, had an appointment Tuesday with a wrecking ball.
Well, not really a wrecking ball. Wrecking balls are so yesterday. Instead, it was a pair of excavators that came calling on the establishment, a fixture at the intersection of Westminster Avenue and Power Street since the mid-90s.
But Westminster and Power is a key spot for Penticton going forward and particularly for its grand North Gateway strategy, and the big parcel on the northeast corner -- the longtime home of Villa Rosa along with a couple of aging homes -- has been destined for high-density housing pretty much since it hit the market in late 2020.
And now that’s precisely what's going to happen.
"That project was approved by council a couple months back," said City of Penticton General Manager of Community Services Anthony Haddad Wednesday morning.
"There'll be 22 three-storey townhomes and there's a small commercial space on the corner (of Westminster and Power) that will provide an opportunity for a tenant in the future."
All residences at "Westmin 795," as it will be known, will be contained within one elongated building. Eleven townhouses will face Westminster, 11 will face the laneway, and some will feature snazzy rooftop decks.
Certainly none can be considered "entry-level." Two are currently on realtor.ca as pre-sales -- a three-level, three-bedroom, three-bathroom, 1594-square-foot unit priced at $734,000 and a three-level, three-bedroom, four-bathroom, 1975-square-foot unit at an eye-watering $934,000.
"I believe they should be in the ground for construction in the next couple of months," said Haddad of the upscale development.
For Villa Rosa's Tyler Gable, who co-owned the restaurant with wife Nicole since 2007 and opened Sociale Enoteca Ristorante with her in the spring, just days after clearing out of Villa Rosa, the demolition wasn't much fun at all.
"I tried not to drive down that way," he said, "but I forgot. It's like watching your house burn down."
As to the future, the Gables are full speed ahead with Sociale but also are in negotiations with the landlord of Westmin 795 to bring a restaurant -- could it be a Villa Rosa return engagement? -- into the development's commercial space.
And that leaves us here at PentictonNow growing even more curious about affordable new housing in the North Gateway zone.
We’ve been told all along that the mega-project will incorporate a mix of new residential types. But thus far we're not really seeing the budget-friendly end of that mix.
We hope to have more on this in the near future.
